Drainage systems and clearing blocked drains.

Because drains and pipes are out of sight and generally work efficiently, most people tend to take them for granted. About the only time anyone pays attention to the drainage system is when they stop draining and the normally invisible waste water overflows and becomes either a nuisance or a major problem. Once everything is back to normal we tend make the mistake of forgetting about them once again.

What Causes blocked Drains?

As a property owner or occupier should know what causes drains to become blocked and how to prevent blocked drains, and you should know what do when a drain becomes blocked or overflows.
In Sydney the most common causes of blocked drains are tree roots growing into the inside of your pipes and creating a restriction which soon ends up as a partial or total blockage. Sydny Drain Cleaning has special equipment to detect the location of such blockages and to remove the blockage from outside your home with a minimal interupption to your daily life.
The other common cause of blocked drains is abusing your drains by using your toiled or sink drain as a way to dispose of household rubbish. Sometimes, these blockages can be cleared from the outside but often they will require one of our plumbers to enter your premises and remove the blockage. This sometimes can require the removal and/or replacement of drain pipes.

Preventing Drain Blockages

Ideally, the best way to deal with a drain problem is to prevent it from ever happening.
In the case of blockages from tree roots, only planning the type and location of trees can help prevent such blockages.
Internal blockages can occur as a result of using your toilet as a waste or from attempting to flush kitchen waste down the sink drain. Eliminating such practices and about once a week flush your drains with hot water will help to reduce blockages.

Health and safety

Drain blockage is more than just an inconvenience, it can be a help and safety issue as well. Most waste water is dirty water. Water that has been backing up in a blocked drain is much dirtier than water that has just been thrown away from a kitchen, bathroom or utility room. It has been lying and breeding harmful bacteria and is worse if it is from the toilet.

In the event the drainage system becomes blocked and is flowing into the property, the blockage must be attended to immediately to reduce the spread of dirty water and the risk of infections. After the blockage has been dealt with, the affected areas of the property must be sanitized to health and safety standards.

If you are concerned about whether or not your blocked drain is a health risk, a professional drain cleaning company can give you good advice, or contact your local environmental health department.

Modern Drain Cleaning Methods

In the event of a blocked drain, there are two main cleaning options; high pressure water and getting an Electro-Mechanical Cleaning.

High Pressure Water Jetting

High pressure water jetting is the quickest, simplest and most effective way of cleaning drains, depending on the type of blockage. A continuous stream of jet water is fired into the drain and blast away the blockage.

Electro-Mechanical Cleaning

This method is mainly used to unblock smaller pipes, such as toilets and sinks rather than drain pipes. In contrast to water this method uses a flexible rod that is pushed into the pipe and removes blockage by carefully manual force. Where necessary a variety of attachments are fitted onto the end of the rod to either cut or scrape away the blockage.

Advantage of Professional Drain Cleaning

The most recent advance in drain cleaning is the use of CCTV surveying. A long flexible cable with a camera on the end is put into the drain. As it is pushed further in, the camera sends back images to a monitor letting the engineer see the conditions of the drain and the blockage. A recording of the survey is put onto a CD or DVD disc. The client is also given a CCTV survey report and drainage ditch layout.

Always consult an expert when dealing with drain cleaning. It may seem like a simple, cheaper option for you to grab a domestic high pressure powered jet or length of piping and start attacking your draining, but knowing where the blockage is and how to prevent more damage is by far the safer, cheaper in the long run, option.